Reviews tagging 'Murder'

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

31 reviews

nanascorner's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

ofclumsywords's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A Day of Fallen Night is the second book in the Roots of Chaos series and takes place 500 years before Priory of the Orange Tree. In this book, we get to see first hand the events of the Grief of Ages, a year long war between the humans and Wyrms, something that was only discussed in minor detail in Priory of the Orange Tree. This book takes place over a four year period, following four characters located in different parts of this lush and beautiful world Shannon has created. Each character has their own story to tell while also being interconnected to the other main characters from the arrival of the dragons all the way through to the end of the Greif of Ages. This book is the very definition of an epic fantasy and stands out against all the other fantasy novels published before as something so unique and beautiful that I will never get tired of returning to this world. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

princessrory's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Colonisation

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child death and Religious bigotry

Minor: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Classism

lmfry's review

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Alcohol

readandfindout's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

4.0

Style/writing: 4 stars
Themes: 4.5 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Plot: 3.5 stars stars
Worldbuilding: 4 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death and Religious bigotry

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, and Cannibalism

shottel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A Day of Fallen Night is an improvement over The Priory of the Orange Tree in nearly every way. It would take a long time to enumerate all the positive changes, but a few in short: The pacing is better, the diversity is better, the appeal to modern audiences is better, the feminist themes are clearer, and even the cover art is better! Priory's Eastern branch lagged, but the branches are deftly balanced in Fallen Night. The book remediates Priory's odd penchant for mostly only mentioning the skin type of white characters, and features a significant number of LGBT+ (every letter of the acronym! and then some!) main and secondary characters. It draws on contemporary writing trends from other adult-genre books and, seemingly, fanfiction ("It's too cold, we have to cuddle for warmth") to excellent effect. And women's issues, most notably issues of pregnancy and birth, feature far more prominently, with the noble requirement to sustain a bloodline playing a role throughout the book.

This mandate to procreate establishes this book as far more clearly feminist (the idea that women have issues, interests, and stories worth hearing as much as men do) than its sequel. The need for nobility to sustain itself through childbirth is a recurring, central issue of the book, among other issues which concern women more than they do men, which also make frequent appearances.

In some ways, this book feels like it was written to an audience that might be into medieval court drama or epic adventures, but aren't too fond of the biases that pervade those genres. It is a grand epic, fantastically wrote, including women, LGBT+ characters, and people of color as equals to men, cishet, and white characters.

There are only a few places where it falters. The biggest problem I had is that the action scenes are confusing. I found myself frequently struggling to imagine the scene, re-reading portions over and over again. At first I thought it was a me issue, but after a half-dozen or so times, I figured it's probably not a me problem.

Additionally, I flagged two more minor concerns. First, with the presence of so many LGBT+ characters, the lack of transfeminine characters stands out oddly. Perhaps one or both of the nonbinary characters in the book are intended to be transfeminine, but there is no way to know this from the text. I don't make any guesses as to why; it just sits weirdly. Secondly, while *Priory* is a truly self-contained work, *Fallen Night* hints at an intention to write another book set between the two. This is the only change which I find to be a step backwards from *Priory*.

When layered inside an over 800 page grand adventure, these issues are minor, thus my score of 4.75/5. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in grand adventures, feminist fiction, fantasy, or fiction with LGBT+ main characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Torture, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, and Abortion

justgothenough's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Grief, Murder, and War

tinybluepixel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Infertility

Minor: Suicide

sehenry20's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship